I have been a global "reputation strategist" -- working at the highest levels to help create, enhance and save reputations for a number of years. My firm, Temin and Company, a boutique management consulting firm of 12 people, is focused on providing world-class marketing and media strategy, crisis and reputation management, thought leadership, and leadership communications (speaker and media) coaching.
Among other clients, I work with 19 CEOs, and often their management teams around the world. Our clients include major corporations and their products, professional services firms, nonprofits, universities, authors, scientists and politicians.
I also speak a lot, and conduct media, presentation skills and crisis management training, to corporations, CEO groups, and association meetings around the world. Also go on TV a lot, often as a spokesperson in times of client crises.
Before starting my firm (a life-long dream), I ran marketing for GE Capital, Schroders, Scudder, Citicorp Investment Bank and Columbia Business School.
I love this work, and truly hope to add serious value to whatever we touch.
It is NEVER boring!
In my spare time (!), I am also First Vice Chair of the Board of Girl Scouts of the USA -- pass the cookies, please -- Chair of the Board of Video Volunteers, an international organization empowering the voices of the poorest of the poor, and on many other boards.
I'm currently writing a book on crisis management. Stay tuned for that one!

“When the truth is found to be lies”…sang Grace Slick. But, she was talking about big lies, I think, not so much the tiny lies that almost everyone on the planet surrounds themselves with, as they write and rewrite their own stories.

Big lies, little lies. Which are which, and which are important? And, do they carry the same importance?

Really… does it make that much difference if someone receives a BA in accounting or computer science? I actually do not think so…

Until, that is, a trouble-making hedge fund trolling for ANYTHING they can find to embarrass their target company, sniffs it out.

If you have ever dealt with one of these dissident shareholder groups — who are not in it to better the workings of a company anywhere near as much as to drive up short-term profits so they can then bail out at a profit for themselves — you will know that there is no level below which they will not stoop to make trouble.

In the bio of Yahoo’s new CEO, Scott Thompson, they appear to have hit pay dirt…at least of a minor variety. So his college, Stonehill – not really a household name – did not offer a computer science degree until the early 80s, and Mr. Thompson graduated in 1979. Not such a big deal, unless it presages a trend. But it can become a huge deal when it is unearthed, and then shamelessly exploited by someone with an agenda.

It has always been thus, this manipulation of truth and lie; importance and unimportance…but really, this is only a precursor to what stands before us in the Presidential election cycle. Whose truth is real…and whose lies are important?

We as a society have an obligation to start to figure this out…before we are whipsawed into total degradation in the next six months.

SO…how about poor Scott Thompson? Has he done a good job as President of eBay’s PayPal, and in all of his previous positions? Does he have an actionable and investable vision for the future of Yahoo! that his board buys in to? Is he a good man, a good leader, a good executer?

This is what matters. It also matters if he engages in a pattern of lying or sociopathic behavior. And if this little lie uncovers a pattern, then it is worth something. If it does not, it is a ridiculous red herring.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, this issue has come up again and again in my crisis management practice. Revisionist histories of top executives is nothing new. Often the revisions take on a life of their own – and become entrenched in the CEO’s lore.

I have learned to distinguish the SMALL lies that executives often embrace while refining their “narratives,” from the BIG lies that show someone to be unfit for duty.

I urge us all to look for the same distinctions.

Moreover, they call for different levels of crisis management.

Let’s say that Mr. Thompson really did make this mistake, but that it is a stand-alone lie, not a “whopper,” or presaging a trend. Then, he quickly fesses up to his board, his management team, and his organization…as well as publicly… apologizes, puts it into context, and moves on:

“I am truly sorry, I did technically graduate with an accounting degree…but computer science was a huge part of my curriculum. (only say that if it was..) Somehow, over the years, I misstated that…I will fix it immediately, and not make that, or another misstatement, to you again. I am honored to be the CEO of Yahoo!, and I take my position extremely seriously. I pledge to you to do my absolute best to return this company to its rightful grandeur, and to do so in as open and transparent a way as a possibly can. Together, we have an exciting future, and I look forward to facing it with you – openly – together.”

And, he should not give AN INCH to the malefactor hedge fund!

However, if the inevitable inquiry into his past that this blunder engenders finds more “misstatements,” or a trend of lying or covering up the truth, then he must go. At that point, the Board issues a statement something to the effect of:

“We have conducted a thorough investigation of our CEO’s history, and have found a number of inconsistencies – enough to be troubling. We have decided to part ways, and wish to announce the interim leadership of xxxx, who has a superb history of leadership of (our or another) company. We have begun the search for our next permanent leader – a man or woman of impeccable vision, executional excellence, value creation and integrity. We will keep you closely informed, as it progresses.”

Little lie – one solution; Big lie – another. But, please let us as a nation understand the difference between the two.

Scott Thompson did NOT deny global warming or the holocaust…he, possibly, misstated his major!

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You undermine your own argument a lot when you say that lying about an MBA is obviously a “big lie” while lying about an undergraduate computer-science degree is obviously a “little lie.” To me, the degrees you earned 25 or 30 years ago don’t really matter at all as credentials for a CEO job now, compared with your exhibited leadership and management skills over your career. To me, this argument applies equally well to MBAs as undergraduate degrees. When you assert otherwise, you make no sense to me. For a fifty-something executive, how could there possibly be a bright line between lying about an MBA and lying about an undergrad degree?

Furthermore, regardless of how unimportant such old credentials may be, I think that allowing any such lie to persist is a failure of integrity, and that seriously undermines leadership. I don’t accept the argument that “we all lie.” Sure, we all make mistakes, including lies, but I want to work with people with integrity, people who strive for honesty, people who admit their mistakes and apologize.

With your stated acceptance of lying behavior, I found myself looking at your own bio in the sidebar and wondering what lies and manipulations it contained. For example, when you said you “ran marketing” for several different companies, were you actually a Chief Marketing Officer or equivalent? Or did you have some much more minor position and deliberately mislead readers with the ambiguous verb “ran,” hoping they would assume you had more responsibility than you really did?

I really want to deal with people who strive towards complete honesty and integrity. I fear that downplaying integrity (even over supposedly “little lies”) leads to a lack of trust. Personally, I’m planning to live in a world where both integrity and trust are increasing over time.

Davia is a “highly experienced global “reputation strategist” — working at the highest levels to help create, enhance and save reputations for major corporations … ” which means her job is covering up ingegrity potholes on the road of deception. She’s not a Forbes columnist. She’s a professional appologizer and cover-up strategist.

I bet this blog post is a PR plant manifest by a call from inside Y! to Davia’s Temin and Co. Inc.

No, by all means, this was and is not the case. You are wrong. You may not agree with me, but my opinions are surely my own. Perhaps if you argued the merits or the facts, the discussion would be more beneficial for all.

Davia, My accountant does not claim to know anything about C++ and my trusted computer expert never talks about payable subsidiary ledgers. I assume this trend is because neither of these professionals lies about their education or credentials – you know, like Scott Thompson has done. Please think more deeply before you claim there’s no difference between a BA in accounting or computer science. It is a really really big @#$%! deal.

Well, so much vitriol, and I am wondering why. Discussion, and disagreement, are the reasons for doing this, of course. But why is it so difficult to be civil? When you make ad hominem attacks on someone simply voicing her opinion, or on someone else because of his political party or race, etc., you erode your own position radically. Truly, I have always put a premium on trying to see and think clearly, but compassionately, see other points of view, advocate for the ones i believe to have merit (and ONLY those) and maybe learn something in the process. Perhaps a little tolerance and civility might be helpful to you, too.

Truly unbelievable! Are you for real? Saying that you have a Computer Science degree when you in fact do NOT is a HUGE deal! Thompson was using his resume to work for a software company; I seriously don’t understand what lie could have been bigger. Computer Science is one of the most difficult undergraduate degrees out there. At many schools, including mine, it ends up being a 5-year degree because the classes are so intense. This makes the lie just that much bigger.